Saturday 24 December 2011 10.10 EST
First published on Saturday 24 December 2011 10.10 EST

Railway signal workers started a 72-hour strike on Christmas Eve in a dispute over career progression.

Union members at the West of Scotland signalling centre in Glasgow went on strike from 6am, causing a reduced timetable on some routes.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union claims Network Rail managers have ripped up an arrangement which had been in place for more than 30 years where staff were "slotted" into a post when it became vacant.

Network Rail said the union wanted a signaller removed from his post before it would negotiate. It said resolving a dispute before the Christmas rush was made "impossible" by the stance of the RMT.

The RMT confirmed last week that members based at the West of Scotland signalling centre would stage a three-day strike from 5.59am, lasting until 5.58am on Tuesday.

Managers and non-unionised staff are expected to replace striking signallers and 95% of services are said to be unaffected.

Services on some local routes from Glasgow Central will face disruption throughout Christmas Eve, Network Rail said.

But the strike will have no impact on the Boxing Day timetable which has already been published.

The RMT general secretary, Bob Crow, said: "The strike action in Scotland is rock solid and the Network Rail scabbing operation has been a total failure.

"Despite all the near promises, well over 100 timetabled services have been affected.

"That disruption is regrettable but entirely down to Network Rail's failure to abide by long-standing local career progression agreements."

However, a spokesman for Network Rail said: "The strike has had very little impact and our contingency plans have worked well.

"We expect to continue to provide a robust service throughout the duration of the dispute."